Citing exceptionally poor market conditions, Irish airline Aer Lingus said on Friday it was cutting back trans-Atlantic flights on its winter season later this year.
The former state airline said in April that total revenues fell by 16 percent year-on-year in the first three months of this year and warned it was facing an exceptionally tough trading environment.
“Aer Lingus’ yields have been declining in exceptionally poor market conditions,” a statement from the carrier said. “Most notably, long haul average fares fell by 19 percent in the first quarter of 2009 reflecting weak economic conditions and consumer confidence on both sides of the Atlantic.
“As a first step in right-sizing the business, Aer Lingus will be reducing seat capacity on winter long haul services — by approximately 25 percent as compared to 2008,” it said.
Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington said the airline was going through its most difficult period in its 73-year history.
“We are looking at the whole operation of Aer Lingus and we are starting off with the winter schedule,” he said.
He said services between Dublin and Washington and San Francisco would be suspended.
Flights between Chicago and Shannon airport in western Ireland will also be suspended.
The moves come as the International Air Transport Association nearly doubled its forecast for global airline industry losses this year to US$9 billion reflecting a “rapidly deteriorating revenue environment” because of the worldwide economic downturn.
CESSNA
Separately, embattled US corporate jet builder Cessna Aircraft said on Friday it plans to cut an additional 1,300 jobs to adjust production to match a meltdown in orders amid the global economic downturn.
The new job cuts will bring the total number of payrolls eliminated since November to 8,200, about half the prior workforce, said the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron Inc.
“We had previously reduced the workforce by 6,900 since November, until April 29. This will be 1,300 on top of that,” Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver said.
Oliver said the jobs were based “solely” on a reduction in aircraft production.
“We are delivering fewer aircraft than we originally planned,” he said.
A year ago the company had projected 535 aircraft deliveries this year, a number that has since been revised to between 270 and 300 “because of the economic crisis,” he said.
Oliver said 800 employees would receive pink slips over the next two weeks, with the remainder notified in August.
As part of the restructuring, the Wichita, Kansas-based company will close a plant in Bend, Oregon.
US AIRWAYS
Meanwhile, US Airways Group Inc is asking 400 flight attendants to take up to 16 months off in response to overstaffing.
The Tempe, Arizona-based company is seeking 300 volunteers from its hubs in Phoenix and Las Vegas and 100 volunteers based on the east coast.
US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder said on Friday that the airline has cut flights faster than flight attendants have left through normal attrition.
Wunder says the airline would turn to involuntary furloughs if it doesn’t get enough volunteers.
Airline president Scott Kirby said at an industry conference on Thursday that the company’s current decline in passenger revenue is even worse than the decline that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS